The night kicked off with ROB playing Huddersfield in the first of the 20 minute games. With Eddie Gibson on the whistle, as he was for all of the games, this was a close fought affair ROB were unlucky to lose 1-0.

We played ROB in the second game and felt we were well on top but came out with a 0-0 score line. Stephen Caven had a few shots and hit the post, Dave Holbrow was close and we had them under pressure for most of the game but could not convert the chances. Our defence was solid and both Mick and Steve Stoker, who shared keeper duties, were rarely tested but coped nicely when anything came their way.

The final game saw us up against Huddersfield in a 'winner take all' game, our Captain making exactly this point in his pre-match briefing to each player.

We started strongly with Dave Holbrow knocking in 2 clinical finishes to open a comfortable lead. Huddersfield then came back into the game with a very fortunate goal that deflected and spun slowly over the line. With the game plunged into darkness due to floodlight failure (no Asian betting syndicate was involved, we think!) it seemed that Eddie's watch was also working on reduced power as the 10 minute first half reached 18 minutes. At the eventual break the score 2-1 and we were playing in the fast fading daylight.

In the second half we had something to defend and concentrated on this with some good possession football. With O'Donnell and Holbrow on 2 warnings for running we finished the match with Mick Wilde as auxiliary striker holding on relatively comfortably for the victory.

A thorough test for our 60+ squad who now move on to the next stage of the WFU tournament, details of this will be published on the website in due course.

Match Summary

Game 1

Rothwell 0-1 Huddersfield

Game 2

Rothwell 0-0 Wakefield

Game 3

Huddersfield 1-2 Wakefield (Holbrow 2)

Final Table

P

W

D

L

GD

Pts

1

Wakefield

3

1

1

0

1

4

2

Huddersfield

3

1

0

1

0

3

3

Rothwell

3

0

1

1

-1

1

It was good to see John Black, Brian McGrath and Jim Pedley from WFC in the crowd supporting us.

Many thanks to Chris, Alastair and the rest of the lads at ROB for their post match hospitality at the British Oak - a nice pint and a tasty selection of food to finish off a good Friday evening.